Mark your calender. On Thursday, November 10th, I’m going to book bomb somebody, and not only that, I’m going to ask all of you for help spread the word because this particular author is in dire need of a boost.

I’ve already plugged Variant by Robison Wells once before. I know many of you read it and liked it. Rob is a friend of mine and a member of Writer Nerd Game Night. Variant is an excellent read, sort of a sci-fi take on Lord of the Flies with a twist, and don’t just take my word for it, it made the Publisher’s Weekly list of the top books of the year. (which is quite the honor, despite PW hating Hard Magic and giving it a sloppy review that made it obvious their lazy ass reviewer only read the first 1/4 of the book. Ultra good Grimnoir and ultra evil Imperium my ass) :)

But I digress. Variant was one of the best books I’ve read this year. I stayed up late to read it in one sitting.

Normally I wouldn’t bomb the same book again, but Rob is also going through a really tough time. A little while ago he was diagnosed with a severe panic disorder. Basically, something in his brain chemistry has gone out of whack, and his fight or flight reflex is constantly switched on. As a result this has really screwed up his life. He has been trying to get it under control and his doctors have been experimenting with different treatments trying to find the one that will click.

Recently, Rob was laid off from his day job as a result of his illness. This is a real financial hardship for him and his family.

What many people don’t realize about writers is that we keep our day jobs until we have about five or six books in circulation, and sometimes longer depending on how well they are selling. Writing isn’t the most steady of paychecks. (I’m doing well enough now that I could just be a writer, but I happen to love my day job, so I plan on doing it for probably another year). You’ve got to earn back the advance and even then you only get paid every six months. Variant is Rob’s first book on the national market. He had a ways to go before he would be able to quit the day job, but his illness totally wrecked that plan.

So I want to book bomb the HELL out of Variant. I want to shove that thing up the bestseller lists on Amazon and I want to give my friend a hand.

What is a book bomb? Well, Amazon has its own bestseller list. It is calculated hourly and you are given a sales rank based up on how you stack up against the other six million books on there. It is some sort of strange rolling average algorhythm, but what it comes down to is, the more books that are purchased during that particular time frame, the higher you rank. The higher you rank, the more of their top 50 or top 10 lists you show up on. The more of those you show up on, the higher you go, the more attention you get, the more books you sell.

By getting as many people as possible to purchase the book on a single day, it really kicks a book up the rankings.

If you were planning on buying a book anyway, I highly recommend Variant. I recommended it before its author fell on really hard times. Unlike most of my stuff, it is appropriate for adults and teenagers. My 11 and 9 year olds have both read it and really liked it, but they read grown up books anyway. So it makes a good Christmas present. Even the lovely Mrs. Correia really liked Variant, and she is the toughest critic I know.

If you’ve got a blog, I’d like to ask a favor and please post about this. Rob is a good dude and needs a hand. And you get an awesome book out of the deal.

45 Responses

Larry is completely right on this one. VARIANT is awesome. I read it in one sitting because it was awesome. I reviewed it a few months back saying as much. If you haven’t picked up a copy, get one for yourself. Then get one for your readers friends…and another for their teenage kids.

I wish I had read this before I went out this morning as one of my stops was Barnes & Noble where I purchased Spellbound and Dead Six. I would have purchased Variant if I’d known. Guess I’ll just have to pick it up on my next trip.

I can’t think of any good reason that publishers couldn’t cut royalty checks monthly. Can you? Seems to me that it would help struggling authors, and be a competitive advantage against other publishers.

You and I both have a good clue about budgeting, and the semi-annual checks really don’t make much difference to us, but for struggling folks, the feast or famine thing seems a bit disingenuous.

Any thoughts?

Also, Variant has been on my Amazon wish list for a while, I’ll punch it Thursday. You haven’t led me astray yet.

Also, is there any problem with using one or more of the contest group patches in a monster movie or book? I wouldn’t feel comfortable using MHI or MCB without your direct permission, but there were quite a few patches and interesting units that might make a fun easter egg for MHI fans. But I don’t want to step on any toes.

I think the main reason they do it like that is to benefit their own cashflow. :) Seriously though, the other reason publishers do it over a period is so that they can calculate what a reasonable reserve for returns are. You don’t get paid on all the books that are shipped to stores, because a % of those will be sent back to the publisher. So they wait, see what % comes back, and then you get paid less that.

I’ve been lucky and have had a really low return percentage, so this hasn’t been too much of an issue for me yet, but I know of others where it has been a significant percentage.

Larry,
What a great cause! Your post brought a tear to my eye. I’ve already bought ten copies of Variant, but I’m willing to buy a few more and send them to my nieces and nephews as Christmas presents. My classroom copy is always in use, so maybe a couple more sitting on that shelf will also be appreciated. Thanks for doing this for Rob. He’s a great guy, and Variant IS the Bomb! The best YA I’ve read this year.
Lu Ann

I own a copy already and just bought another one -i know I’m supposed to buy it tomorrow -but since I’m getting a second copy, I’d like to get it autographed by Rob and give it away on my blog in the future. I hope my purchase today still helps him though! And I’m about to blog about his book and share your book bomb idea on my blog. Thanks for this!

I don’t know if it helps the cause for getting it onto the top 50 and 10 lists, but rob has said he makes a little more money from the audiobook version because its more expensive. I’ll help by waiting an extra day to buy the audio version. loved the monster hunter books so far, great listens. thanks for posting this on the writing excuses Facebook page.

I set aside a little money every month for a good cause. Usually I buy goods produced by microfinanced businesses in developing nations. But Rob Wells is a good guy who has worked hard to unselfishly mentor and help other people with their writing careers. So I guess my local middle school and high school libraries will be getting a half dozen shiny new copies of Variant this week. I’ll order tomorrow. :)

[…] No One. I’ve added him to list, over there on the right side of my blog. Larry Correia of Monster Hunter Nation and Richard McEnroe of Three Beers Later give the man and the book high marks. He’s run […]

LDS Women’s Book review did a combined review of Variant last week and I also reviewed it on my personal book review blog. I am also giving away a copy of Variant on the November Giveaway Hop. It would be great it people will go to my blog and then tweet about it and get Variant out there in the twitterverse1 more way.

I want to do whatever I can to help Rob. You are a great friend to plan all of this Larry.

I just bought the audio book version. I will listen and add the review to my audio book review blog www(dot)kidsaudiobookreviews(dot)com. I will add it to my tweet-list. I had a similar problem a few years ago. It’s a hellish feeling!